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Heres some good news: If you have student loan debt, you could soon qualify for a repayment plan that comes with lower monthly bills. The eligibility requirements for the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Plan have been updated to allow a broader swath of student loan borrowersincluding higher earnersto enroll in this plan as a result of a provision in the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed over the summer. You may be able to switch to this plan, even if you dont have partial financial hardship. The U.S. Department of Education is working to update its system to implement the updates to the IBR Plan and said it anticipates that those changes will be completed this month. In the meantime, servicers will hold IBR applications that would otherwise be denied. servicers will process those applications after the system changes are completed, the Department said in an update from last month. We encourage borrowers who applied for the IBR Plan and were denied due to lack of partial financial hardship before we instructed servicers to hold these applications to reapply. That said, borrowers who are freshly eligible for the IBR Plan may have to wait several more months before they start to receive their new monthly payments. Thats because the Department has pegged July 1, 2026 as the date when borrowers who have eligible loans can access the IBR and the date when there will be no restrictions on enrolling in IBR. The Department of Education didnt immediately respond to a request for comment from Fast Company regarding the timing of when borrowers will begin to receive their new monthly bills. EXPANDED ELIGIBILITY The changes from this past summer mean that more high-income borrowers will now be eligible for this income-driven repayment plan. But the Department of Education is also scrapping three other affordable repayment plans: The Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, the Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) plan, and the Pay as You Earn (PAYE) plan. Borrowers under these three plans may switch to the IBR plan, though they wont necessarily see their monthly payments go down. Borrowers in PAYE may not see their monthly bill change much under IBR, while theyll be higher for those borrowers currently enrolled in SAVE, Mark Kantrowitz, an expert on student financial aid, told CNBC. But many borrowers enrolled in ICR will have lower monthly payments once they switch to IBR, he added. Though the eligibility for the Income-Based Repayment Plan has been expanded, other aspects remain the same. The monthly payment will continue to be calculated as 10% of a borrowers discretionary income, with a 20-year repayment period, for those borrowers who first took out a loan on or after July 1, 2014. For those borrowers who took out a loan prior to that date, the monthly payment amount is calculated based on 15% of a borrower’s discretionary income, with a 25-year repayment period. Whats more, there are still exclusions to the IBR Plan that include Parent PLUS borrowers whose loans have not been consolidated and recipients of Perkins loans and other loan programs who have not consolidated those loans.
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E-Commerce
If youve recycled a Nespresso capsule recently, your spent coffee grounds could help Los Angeles recover from the devastating January 2025 wildfires. Nespresso is donating 100,000 pounds of compost, made in part from recycled coffee capsules, to City Plants LA, a nonprofit that plants and cares for trees across the city. The Swiss brand will deliver the compost in three batches, and recently sent off its first batch of about 30,000 pounds to the nonprofit. Nearly a year after the Palisades and Eaton wildfires, the soil across Los Angeles county is still impacted. Wildfires contaminate soil with heavy metals, alter its nutrient contents, and increase the risk of erosion. Compost can help restore that soil, adding in nutrients and binding with contaminants. City Plants will use the compost from Nespresso to replant or save trees that survived the wildfires, as well as on new trees it’s planting throughout L.A. It expects to distribute more than 8,500 trees to L.A. residents. (Residents can also pick up compost from the nonprofit.) To create compost, Nespresso’s partners use a mix of organic materials, so coffee grounds can make up between 5 to 20% of the final product. That 100,000 pounds of compost donated to L.A. will be made up of about 5,000 recycling bags of Nespresso capsules, or about 20,000 pounds of coffee grounds. [Photo: Nestlé] How Nespresso recycles This isnt Nespressos first time turning its coffee grounds into compost. The company has long worked with composting company AgChoice as part of a complimentary recycling program. Customers can recycle their used capsules by mailing back bags of spent pods or dropping them off at Nespresso stores. (In New York City and Jersey City only, customers can also toss used capsules into their curbside recycling bins.) From there, its partners extract the coffee grounds from the aluminum, turning the grounds into compost, and the metal into new objects, including Nespresso capsules, pens, or even bikes. [Photo: Nestlé] In the wake of the Los Angeles wildfires, though, the coffee company wanted to do something specifically for Southern California, and so launched this effort, called Grounds to Grow LA. We were trying to figure out, how do we find a project that could provide meaning to us and also our community? says Amy Uong, senior recycling manager at Nespresso USA. [Photo: Nestlé] Making composting relatable Nespresso connected to City Plants, and, throughout the fall, put out a call to action to its California customers, encouraging donations at the 13 Nespresso stores throughout the state. However, since composting takes time, the 100,000 pounds that will be donated to City Plants includes compost processed before the project began, collected from across the country. Still, by appealing to California customers and focusing on wildfire restoration, Nespresso hopes to make the recycling process more tangible to its customersand increase recycling participation. Currently, Nespressos recycling rate is 35%; it aims to reach 60% by 2030. It was really about, how do we influence more consumers? How do we give them meaning to participate in the recycling program? Uong says. Recycling can be abstract to consumers, she admits; they may put something into a bin, but they dont see what it becomes. But with the coffee grounds turning into compost, it’s something they can see. They can see a tree on the street or in their backyard; the residents can go and pick it up. They’re now active in that process.
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E-Commerce
Omnicom said on Monday it will lay off more than 4,000 employees and fold several well-known advertising agency brands after its $13 billion acquisition of rival Interpublic Group. The advertising industry faces a serious threat as artificial intelligence reshapes creative production and tech giants such as Meta make it easier for businesses to churn out ads at scale and speed. Omnicom’s high-stakes acquisition of Interpublic Group, which was completed in November, aims to regain momentum in this shifting landscape, as it contends with fierce competition from French ad giant Publicis and UK’s WPP. The company said creative agency DDB, founded in 1949, and creative marketing agency MullenLowe will be integrated into Omnicom’s TBWA. FCB, one of the largest global ad agency networks owned by IPG with roots dating back to 1873, will be absorbed into Omnicom’s BBDO, according to the company. Omnicom said more than 4,000 jobs would be cut as part of the IPG integration, mainly in administrative roles but some leadership positions will also be impacted. After the job cuts, roughly 85% of the roles will be client-focused, while 15% will be administrative, the company said. The financial benefits would surpass $750 million in annual cost savings initially projected to investors, it added. “We will be delivering this news as promptly as possible to maintain transparency and privacy for those affected,” Omnicom said in an emailed statement. The advertising giant said the cuts should be seen against the backdrop of similar restructuring at rivals such as WPP, which is also expected to axe jobs under new boss Cindy Rose. Interpublic Group laid off about 3,200 employees in the first nine months of 2025, according to a regulatory filing. Omnicom last year reduced its staff by 3,000 to about 75,000. The Financial Times first reported the developments earlier on Monday, citing interviews with Omnicom executives. Jaspreet Singh, Reuters Additional reporting by Anhata Rooprai.
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E-Commerce
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